Studies in Song

By Algernon Charles Swinburne

"Studies in Song" by Algernon Charles Swinburne. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Press
• Release date: Dec 9, 2019
• ISBN: 4064066242374

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Algernon Charles Swinburne

Studies in Song

Published by Good Press, 2022

[e-mail]

EAN 4064066242374

Table of Contents

SONG FOR THE CENTENARY

OF

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR

SONG FOR THE CENTENARY OF WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.

GRAND CHORUS OF BIRDS

ARISTOPHANES

THE BIRDS.

OFF SHORE.

AFTER NINE YEARS.

TO JOSEPH MAZZINI.

FOR A PORTRAIT OF FELICE ORSINI.

EVENING ON THE BROADS.

THE EMPEROR'S PROGRESS.

A STUDY IN THREE STAGES.

THE RESURRECTION OF ALCILIA.

THE FOURTEENTH OF JULY.

LAUNCH OF THE LIVADIA

THE LAUNCH OF THE LIVADIA.

SIX YEARS OLD.

A PARTING SONG.

BY THE NORTH SEA

BY THE NORTH SEA

SONG FOR THE CENTENARY

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OF

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WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR

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Born January 30th, 1775

Died September 17th, 1864

---

There is delight in singing, though none hear

Beside the singer: and there is delight

In praising, though the praiser sit alone

And see the praised far off him, far above.

Landor.

---

DEDICATION.

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TO MRS. LYNN LINTON.

Daughter in spirit elect and consecrate

By love and reverence of the Olympian sire

Whom I too loved and worshipped, seeing so great,

And found so gracious toward my long desire

To bid that love in song before his gate

Sound, and my lute be loyal to his lyre,

To none save one it now may dedicate

Song's new burnt-offering on a century's pyre.

And though the gift be light

As ashes in men's sight,

Left by the flame of no ethereal fire,

Yet, for his worthier sake

Than words are worthless, take

This wreath of words ere yet their hour expire:

So, haply, from some heaven above,

He, seeing, may set next yours my sacrifice of love.

May 24, 1880.

---

SONG FOR THE CENTENARY OF WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.

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1.

Five years beyond an hundred years have seen

Their winters, white as faith's and age's hue,

Melt, smiling through brief tears that broke between,

And hope's young conquering colours reared anew,

Since, on the day whose edge for kings made keen

Smote sharper once than ever storm-wind blew,

A head predestined for the girdling green

That laughs at lightning all the seasons through,

Nor frost or change can sunder

Its crown untouched of thunder

Leaf from least leaf of all its leaves that grew

Alone for brows too bold

For storm to sear of old,

Elect to shine in time's eternal view,

Rose on the verge of radiant life

Between the winds and sunbeams mingling love with strife.

2.

The darkling day that gave its bloodred birth

To Milton's white republic undefiled

That might endure so few fleet years on earth

Bore in him likewise as divine a child;

But born not less for crowns of love and mirth,

Of palm and myrtle passionate and mild,

The leaf that girds about with gentler girth

The brow steel-bound in battle, and the wild

Soft spray that flowers above

The flower-soft hair of love;

And the white lips of wayworn winter smiled

And grew serene as spring's

When with stretched clouds like wings

Or wings like drift of snow-clouds massed and piled

The godlike giant, softening, spread

A shadow of stormy shelter round the new-born head.

3.

And o'er it brightening bowed the wild-haired hour,

And touched his tongue with honey and with fire,

And breathed between his lips the note of power

That makes of all the winds of heaven a lyre

Whose strings are stretched from topmost peaks that tower

To softest springs of waters that suspire,

With sounds too dim to shake the lowliest flower

Breathless with hope and dauntless with desire:

And bright before his face

That Hour became a Grace,

As in the light of their Athenian quire

When the Hours before the sun

And Graces were made one,

Called by sweet Love down from the aerial gyre

By one dear name of natural joy,

To bear on her bright breast from heaven a heaven-born boy.

4.

Ere light could kiss the little lids in sunder

Or love could lift them for the sun to smite,

His fiery birth-star as a sign of wonder

Had risen, perplexing the presageful night

With shadow and glory around her sphere and under

And portents prophesying by sound and sight;

And half the sound was song and half was thunder,

And half his life of lightning, half of light:

And in the soft clenched hand

Shone like a burning brand

A shadowy sword for swordless fields of fight,

Wrought only for such lord

As so may wield the sword

That all things ill be put to fear and flight

Even at the flash and sweep and gleam

Of one swift stroke beheld but in a shuddering dream.

5.

Like the sun's rays that blind the night's wild beasts

The sword of song shines as the swordsman sings;

From the west wind's verge even to the arduous east's

The splendour of the shadow that it flings

Makes fire and storm in heaven above